Brands warm to new ideas as temperatures climb

Parka maker Kanuk among companies looking to weatherproof businesses for a changing future

- TARA DESCHAMPS

Entrepreneur Bertrand Cesvet says the heavyweight down jackets market is "gone at this point."

Bertrand Cesvet is feeling the heat — and not because of a late-summer hot spell.

The entrepreneur is part of an investment group that bought luxury parka maker Kanuk in May, and while he’s proud to have his hand in the company he calls the Canada Goose of Quebec, he admits that climate change weighs heavily on its future.

“The reality is that cold is not happening anymore,” Cesvet said.

“The group that had Kanuk had bought it eight years before and that was the last time it was -35 C in Quebec.

“Since then, basically the weather’s been getting warmer and warmer.”

The rising temperatures pose a threat to Kanuk’s flagship product — parkas that can withstand -25 C — and have Cesvet and other retail leaders thinking about how to weatherproof their businesses for a future where extreme heat, flooding and natural disasters could be the norm.

The trio of troubles are expected to dramatically transform how consumers shop in the decades to come, but Mother Nature can be unpredictable, making it hard for retailers to prepare their inventory for weather patterns months and even years in advance.

“The problem is that word, ‘volatility.’ This isn’t a consistent linear change that you can track and plan for,” said Lorna Hall, director of fashion intelligence at trend forecasting firm WGSN.